Wyoming Trivia & Tidbits - Page 16

Looking for Wyoming trivia? Try our list Wyoming little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The red-tiled roofs and stucco walls that characterized the Spanish mission architectural style popular in the 1920s dominate the homes in the town of Sinclair (pop. 423). Sinclair was built by an oil company in the 1920s.

first appeared: 6/23/2002

One of the more commanding sights of Yellowstone National Park is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, a 20-mile long canyon formed by volcanic activity and glaciers over the last 2 million years. The canyon reaches depths of 1,200 feet and its width can reach 4,000 feet. The Yellowstone River flows through the canyon, which has walls of yellow volcanic rock.

first appeared: 6/23/2002

The best known “lost gold mine” in Wyoming is Lost Cabin near Buffalo (pop. 3,900). According to accounts, three miners found a rich strike while panning on Crazy Woman Creek in 1865. Two of the miners were killed in an American-Indian attack and the third barely escaped. He quickly rounded up a party to find the mine and the cabin he had built with his companions, but neither was ever found.

first appeared: 6/16/2002

Newcastle (pop. 3,065) gets its name from the coal that brought it into existence. Founders of the coal-mining center took the name from a coal port in England, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

first appeared: 6/9/2002

Yellowstone National Park’s Roaring Mountain’s thermal feature erupted into activity in 1902, creating steam vents or “fumaroles” that could be heard miles away. But the activity has slowed in recent years, leaving just a few active steam vents.

first appeared: 6/9/2002

The nation’s oldest national forest is Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming. President Benjamin Harrison created the Yellowstone Timber Reserve in 1891 near Yellowstone National Park. In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt named the area the Shoshone National Forest, the nation’s first.

first appeared: 6/2/2002

The largest free outdoor swimming pool in Wyoming is in Buffalo (pop. 3,900). The George Washington Memorial Park pool holds more than 1 million gallons of water and is half the size of a football field.

first appeared: 6/2/2002

At Sinks Canyon State Park near Lander (pop. 6,867), the Popo Agie River disappears into a cave at the bottom of a cliff at a point called “The Sinks.” A little more than one-quarter mile away, the river resurfaces in a pool called “The Rise.”

first appeared: 5/26/2002

Martha Canary claimed she got her famous nickname—Calamity Jane—near what would become Sheridan (pop. 15,804). Canary, a scout for the U.S. Army, had accompanied a captain on a mission to stop an American Indian uprising in 1872. When the captain was shot, Canary returned him to the fort. She said the appreciative captain gave her the name “Calamity Jane, the heroine of the plains.”

first appeared: 5/26/2002

The Bear River, which flows through Wyoming on its way to the Great Salt Lake, is the longest stream in the Western Hemisphere that does not empty into an ocean. The river starts in Utah, flows into Wyoming, back into Utah, into Wyoming again, into Idaho and finally into Utah’s Great Salt Lake—a course covering about 500 miles.

first appeared: 5/19/2002

A monument to inventor Thomas Edison can be found near Battle Lake in the Sierra Madres, where Edison went on a fishing trip in 1878. Local legend has it that Edison got the idea to use carbon for the filament in his electric light bulb, during the trip when he threw a broken bamboo fishing pole on a campfire and noticed that the bamboo fibers glowed as they burned. In reality, Edison didn’t come up with the idea for his filament until a year later.

first appeared: 5/12/2002

Until 1902, the river flowing past Cody (pop. 8,835) was known as Stinkingwater because of the geysers found along the waterway. That year, town residents convinced the Legislature to change the river’s name to the Shoshone River.

first appeared: 5/5/2002

The highest point in Wyoming is found on Gannet Peak at an elevation of 13,804 feet. That makes the peak at the western edge of the Bridger Wilderness the fifth-highest point in the nation.

first appeared: 5/5/2002

The winning streak of the rodeo bull Mr. T. was broken in Cheyenne, Wyo. Sometimes called the “greatest bucking bull of all time,” Mr. T was unconquered for more than five years, throwing 188 cowboys to the ground in professional rodeos. But in July 1989, Marty Staneart, a California cowboy competing in the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo, became the first person to ride Mr. T for the required eight seconds.

first appeared: 4/28/2002

The first structure built in Wyoming by a white settler was located near Casper. Robert Stuart built his log cabin at Bessemer Bend in 1812.

first appeared: 4/28/2002

Wyoming’s first newspaper was created by a telegraph operator. Hiram Brundage published the Fort Bridger Daily Telegraph beginning in June of 1863 in Fort Bridger (pop. 400), named after mountain man Jim Bridger.

first appeared: 4/21/2002

The first book printed in what is now Wyoming was published at a military outpost in 1866. The Dictionary of the Sioux Language was compiled by C. Guerreau, J.K. Hyer, and W.S. Starring and was published at Fort Laramie while Wyoming was still part of the Dakota Territory.

first appeared: 4/14/2002

A photograph of the Tetons near Jackson (pop. 8,647) is one of the earthly images on board the spacecraft Voyager II, which is traveling beyond the boundaries of our solar system.

first appeared: 4/7/2002

President Abraham Lincoln never visited Wyoming or had any connections to the state, but a sculpture of Lincoln greets traffic on Interstate 80 near Laramie (pop. 27,204). The 3.5-ton bust of Lincoln, standing 12.5 feet tall, was built in 1959 in honor of the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth.

first appeared: 4/7/2002

Compiled by Jim Angell of Cheyenne, Wyo.

first appeared: 4/7/2002

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